Looking at the picture of Monet's Garden in Giverny, France brings back many memories. The sheer beauty and poetry of the flowers and landscape tells me that he could have been a famous writer as well as a painter and artist. The scenes speak volumes.
Our last meeting was held on September 16th. We were able to greet a new member and hear some wonderful new stories and share idea's that will help us all create new masterpieces in the future.
Member Updates:
Don H. Still seeking input for the Christmas Anthology that our group is putting together with the hopes of publishing a book of short stories and poems for the upcoming holiday. We would like to have more stories/poems for the project. Please send your story or poem to following email address:
as drawn from his papers and the memory of his third son, Donald Jerry Peacock, June, 2011. His book has been accepted into the permanent collection of historical books at Indiana University. He is still awaiting a response from another university that his father attended
My father worked on a Top Secret Project (now declassified) during WW II. The proximity fuse was one of three things that helped win WW II. The others were the Atomic Bomb and Radar. I put the document (250 pages) together from his papers and submitted it to Indiana University where he got all three of his degrees. They put it into their permanent collection at the library and sent me a letter acknowledging this.
Here is Don's funny story which was inspired by my encounter last March with the famous hacker who held me hostage in Spain for $ 2500. Sorry to report but no one paid the money so I guess I am still there in spirit.
Where Was I?
“I went to Brazil the other day. At least most of my e-mail buddies said I did. I don't remember it at all. I guess the wine was more than I could handle, because they all told me I had sent them the following email:
‘Hope you get this on time. Sorry I didn't inform you about my trip to Brazil for a meeting. I am presently in Rio de Janeiro and am having some unforeseen difficulties here. It's so hard for me to believe this happened to me. I was robbed on my way to the hotel. All my cash, credit cards, as well as my cell-phone were stolen from me.
I need you to help me with a loan of $3,250 dollars to pay my hotel and meal bills as well as to get myself back home. I've been to the embassy and the police but they are not responding to the matter effectively. I will appreciate however much you can afford to send me. I will return the money to you as soon as I return. Let me know if you can be of any help. I don't have a phone where I can be reached right now so just reply to this email. Please let me know immediately.
Phillip’
The oddest part is that I don't even remember flying down there. I must have really had something strong to drink or else I am starting to really show signs of old age. I don't even remember where I stayed or who I saw, so I can't verify that I was there, or what I did, or why I even went there.
I asked my wife about it but she said she hadn't missed me over the weekend. Of course she was tied up with getting ready for her book club meeting on Monday, her church ladies luncheon on Tuesday, and her church board meeting on Wednesday.
I know she carries quite a load with all that she is involved in, but you would think she would notice me sometime over the whole weekend. I will have to quiz her some more on this while I try to figure out what happened. Maybe when I talk to her I will ask if it is a common thing that she pays no attention to me.
It couldn't be that I don't pay any attention to her. I complement her on her hair all the time. I think. I'm sure I do. Almost certainly. I'll have to ask her when she gets home from where ever she is. Whatever time she gets home.
Now what was I going to check on? Oh yes, I remember. The trip to Brazil. I remember going to Germany last year, and to New Orleans four months ago. But Brazil? Good gosh, maybe I ought to see a doctor. What do they call the ones that check your brain. It will come to me later. I hope. Well, I can always Google it. Well, I have some work to do on the computer as well as some emails to send out. I had better get them done.”
He headed to the computer room, got comfortable, and turned it on, prepared to get busy for the morning. After staring at the blue screen for three minutes and wondering why it was taking so long to boot up he tried shutting it down to try to boot up again. The shut down procedure apparently was also not working along with the boot up.
"What am I doing wrong on this. This thing has always worked in the past with no difficulty at all. Maybe if I just unplug it and let it rest for a couple of hours. Then it will do a self search to try to determine what is wrong. Maybe that will solve the problem."
With that he unplugged the computer and went out to the garage to try to finish some projects that he was trying to get done for birthday presents for his three kids. In the garage he quickly busied himself with the projects and forgot for a couple of hours about the computer problem. Finally he remembered to get back on the computer problem thinking to himself that it should be an easy one to solve.
He plugged in the computer again and pressed the “on” button. The blue screen came up again but it didn't progress past that. No desktop, no folders, nothing. Over the next five minutes his playing with the keys produced absolutely nothing. As he got madder and madder he realized that the computer was totally dead and unresponsive.
"What the Devil is going on here. I have never had this happen before. I'm not sure what to do now."
He got out the phone book and started searching under the heading of "Computer Repair". Then he spotted the listing for "Computer Nerds". Their listing said "All computer problems solved, viruses removed, upgrades performed, results guaranteed".
He immediately dialed them and, after a short discussion of his problem, made an appointment for them to come to his home the next day and see what was going on with the computer.
At 9:30 am sharp the next day a very nerd-ish looking young man showed up and knocked loudly on the front door. He introduced himself as John from "Computer Nerds".
Phillip introduced himself and asked him why he hadn't just rang the doorbell. The response he got was, "I didn't see it." Phillip's first thought was, "It was right there beside the door and it's lighted.", but he didn't say anything more, he just invited John to come in and then led him back to the computer room.
John quickly demonstrated his ability by plugging a portable pocket unit into the UBS connection on the computer and using it to start up the computer. At the opening screen Phillip jumped up and yelled, "It lives."
At that John thought to himself, "And he considers me to be a nerd." With the opening screen of the boot up John started some initial checks on the machine, exploring what was available. It quickly became obvious that there was nothing available. It was totally cleaned out. No files of any kind, no folders, nothing.
John turned to Phillip and said, "Everything that was on this computer has been deleted. It is totally empty."
Phillip sat down and put his head in his hands and moaned, "All that work gone. I didn't have the last six months of work backed up. It's unrecoverable."
John proceeded to completely check the computer over, looking for any viruses or worms. Finding none he asked for the backup unit and after installing Firefox as the operating system he copied everything from the backup unit to the computer. He then did a complete new check for viruses and worms. At that point he told Phillip he, at least now, had an operating computer and that that was all he could do. He accepted his check for $100, packed up his stuff and headed out the door. As he exited he reached over and rang the doorbell twice.
Phillip sat down at the computer and searched for his backup list of contacts in the desk drawer. He found that there were only two hundred listed on it and he knew he had had over three hundred before all this started. The next thing he did was to send out the following email to what contacts he did have:
"The last two days have been pure Hell. Yesterday I received more than 50 phone calls and no emails. A hacker had broken into my email account and erased everything. They deleted all 300 plus of my contacts. They also erased all of my folders so I couldn't let everybody know that my system was compromised. They got past my security settings and had all of my stored emails forwarded to another address. The Computer Nerds have fixed my security issues and I have managed to restore a lot of my contact list. Do not send me any money as the previous email requested, unless of course you want to give me a gift for my birthday next month."
With that out of the way Phillip tried to decide what to do next. Finally he decided that now he had better go check on that trip to Australia that he thought he took three weeks ago.
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Then there was the excellent one page essay that everyone complimented about at our last meeting in late August. Enclosed is Martha's essay entitled "My Life on One Page". Enjoy
The Surprises Keep Coming
As an innocent nineteen year old of the 1950’s, marriage expectations included a loving husband, a few children, a nice home , picnics, vacations and old age together. What a dry, uninteresting view of the future life.
So what did I get?
1. A Fabulous husband
2. Life in seven states
3. Twenty eight moves
4. Two dear and faithful children
5. Six outstanding grandsons
6. One great grandson (at four months “A wild and crazy guy”)
7. A nursing degree
8. A wonderful satisfying job as a hospital nurse for 18 years
9. An interesting an loving extended family that still gathers
10. Trips to all 50 states and 23 countries
11. Thirteen cruises
12. Thirty six Elder hostel’s visits
13. Nineteen terrific retirement years
14. An enriching and enlighten church life
15. Friends and activities that feed my soul
And what about surprises? I present just a few:
1. Moving all over the United States-Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Kentucky, and Arizona
2. Gaining sixty pounds of weight through the years
3. No granddaughters
4. A great grandson who father is our youngest grandson , age fourteen
5. Two children with divorces
6. Double knee replacements
7. Being quite healthy at age 75
8. My husband running six marathons and still doing half marathons at age 70.
9. Being married 56 years to my best friend and still “crazy in love”
Martha Willis 7-20-2011
"My Life on One Page"
NEXT MEETING IS OCT 21ST
